This strikes me as a huge issue, which I've also seen: “I have been told in interviews that they want somebody younger,” said Karen Lamkin, a lawyer with 25 ye

This strikes me as a huge issue, which I've also seen: “I have been told in interviews that they want somebody younger,” said Karen Lamkin, a lawyer with 25 years of experience who lives outside Boston and has been out of work for three years. “It does not matter that I would be satisfied with the salary for a junior position.” I have seen that many times. Managers will want someone younger. Pay has nothing to do with it. Rather, managers believe that someone younger will be willing to work longer hours, and will also be easier to manipulate. The unemployment rate would have to go extremely low before businesses began hiring the unwanteds. It is worth noting that in the USA male participation in the economy peaked in the late 1950s, and has since declined. Much of this was racial: blacks were barred from getting good jobs, so they were overly concentrated in textiles and agriculture. Then a combination of automation and outsourcing reduced employment in textiles and agriculture. 60 years later, and the USA has still failed to recover. How low would unemployment have to be before USA businesses would hire so many men that labor participation rates would go back to the rates of the 1950s? Clearly, the USA would need a long labor shortage before businesses would give up on their biases and hire all of the willing workers.